Germany's air traffic control restricted flights at the airport shortly after 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Thursday and then halted them altogether, the airport said in a statement. Seventeen flights were unable to take off, affecting almost 3,000 passengers, while 15 arriving flights were diverted to three other airports in Germany and one in Vienna, Austria.
Flights in and out of the airport resumed at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT), said Stefan Bayer, a spokesperson for Germany's federal police at Munich airport.
Authorities were not immediately able to provide any information about who was responsible for the overflights.
The incident was the latest in a series of incidents of mysterious drone sightings over airports as well as other critical infrastructure sites in several European member countries. Drones also were spotted overnight in Belgium above a military base.
A drone incident in Oslo, the capital of Norway, which is a NATO member but not part of the EU, also affected flights there late last month.
It wasn’t immediately clear who has been behind the flyovers. European authorities have expressed concerns that they're being carried out by Russia, though some experts have noted that anybody with drones could be behind them. Russian authorities have rejected claims of involvement, including in recent drone incidents in Denmark.
